


gonna pop your bubblegum heart

by ThunderstormsandMemories



Series: 15 days of fatt 2020 [4]
Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: 15 Days of FatT, 15 Days of FatT 2020, F/F, Flirting, Pre-Relationship, the inherent romance of hiding from a fancy party together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23284996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderstormsandMemories/pseuds/ThunderstormsandMemories
Summary: Clem and Gucci, stealing a quiet moment together away from the people and the attention
Relationships: Gucci Garantine/Clementine Kesh
Series: 15 days of fatt 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667332
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	gonna pop your bubblegum heart

**Author's Note:**

> written a day late for 15 days of fatt, the prompt was "cut loose"
> 
> warning for a little bit of alcohol consumption

Clem let out a deep breath as she leaned back against the smooth bark of the decorative tree in the smallest of the palace’s three greenhouses, finally alone, confidant that no one would find her here. This room wasn’t on the way to the bathrooms or the open bar or any of the ball rooms, no matter how lost you were, and there weren’t any rare plants from off-world or interesting bits of statuary to draw the interest of the guests. It was just a room full of plants that weren’t spectacular enough for a layperson or unusual enough for an enthusiast. She sighed, closing her eyes, sipping on the last drink she’d grabbed as she’d retreated from that horrible crowded reception, full of people either sucking up or talking down to her.

And then she heard a voice that nearly made her fall out of the tree and did make her spill her drink, but only a little bit thankfully, considering how hard it was to get Apostolosian wine these days, and how difficult it was to get stains out of white silk. “Hiding from all your adoring fans?”

“Excuse me?” Clem said, haughtily and definitely not at all embarrassed. The intruder was a guest at the party, a person Clem had seen around at previous Kesh functions. She was very pretty, and her clothes were very nice, though not as nice as Clem’s, but she did wear them very well. Her dress was red, more of a cherry red than blood or wine, almost the same shade as the lipstick Clem had chosen to accent her own look, with a long skirt and wide sleeves of the same delicate material that swirled around her as she walked so that she looked like she was floating. She was holding a plate of very tiny cupcakes with even tinier edible jewels set into the frosting in one hand, and a very elegant, frothy cocktail in an improbably intricate piece of glassware that looked like it would snap if she so much as breathed on it from the wrong angle.

“Isn’t it a little bit rude of the hostess to abandon her guests to sulk, or whatever it is that you’re doing out here?”

“Isn’t it a little bit rude to question the hostess on her own private business?” Clem snapped. “And anyway, it’s not my party, it’s my mother’s. Also, I’m not sulking, I’m having a great time.”

“Oh, my apologies,” she said, popping a tiny cupcake into her mouth in one bite. “In that case, do you want company or are you too busy posing in a tree like you’re practicing for your next photoshoot?” She raised one elegant eyebrow at Clem, and in the dim light Clem could almost swear she was smirking.

“Depends,” Clem said, who had gotten over her irritation at the interruption of her private relaxation time—not sulking, she did not _sulk_ —and settled on being intrigued by this woman who was teasing her and maybe a little bit flirting with her, but definitely not treating her with the condescension of her mother’s peers or the obsequiousness of her own. “Are you going to share those cupcakes?”

She laughed and said, “Are you going to come down here, or do I have to climb up somehow?” She waved her plate and her glass at Clem, while also doing some kind of complicated motion with her foot that showed off just how impractical her shoes were. Honestly, it was a bit of a miracle she’d made it this far into the evening without breaking her ankles. Clem clutched the stem of her own wineglass, hoped she wouldn’t make too much of a fool of herself, and slid out of the tree, landing lightly on the soft mulch below, her wine swirling but not spilling.

“I did it!” Clem said triumphantly, and then, suddenly remembering her name, from the multiple times they’d been introduced to each other: “Gucci! Gucci Garantine!”

“Clementine Kesh!” Gucci said, echoing her tone, balancing her drink on top of her plate so that she could reach out to shake Clem’s hand.

“No, I’m Clementine Kesh,” she said, taking Gucci’s hand and holding on for just a second too long. But Gucci didn’t pull away either, just watched her, with a challenge in her smile that Clem felt mirrored on her own face.

“Yes, I know who you are,” said Gucci.

“Who doesn’t?” Clem said, more bitterly than she meant to, and Gucci patted her shoulder pad a little awkwardly and offered her the plate of cupcakes. Clem shoved one into her mouth; it was mostly sugar and very little actual substance, though the tiny edible gemstones had a surprisingly intense flavor as she crushed them in her teeth.

“There’s probably someone out there who hasn’t heard of you,” Gucci said, eating the last of the cupcakes with much more elegance than Clem felt like she had, the plate disappearing somewhere into her voluminous sleeves. “Some distant corner of Partizan where no one reads the news.” She paused, biting her lip, and then said, “Their loss.”

“Yeah,” Clem said, now certain that she was being flirted with, wanting to flirt back but not entirely sure how. “More of a shame that there are places no one’s heard of you, though.”

She was rewarded by another dazzling smile from Gucci, who said, “Maybe you should invite me to your next photoshoot, then. Our stylists can trade tips. Yours did an excellent job on your makeup tonight.” Clem brightened up a bit at that, proudly. The glittery silver-and-gold eyeshadow had been her idea, though of course she hadn’t actually done it for herself. The last time she’d done her own makeup she’d been twelve years old and stabbed herself in the eye with a mascara wand. “Although,” Gucci frowned a bit, and Clem pouted, ready to be defensive about whatever Gucci thought was wrong with her look, “your lipstick’s gotten a little smudged. Here, let me take care of that.”

Gucci lifted her hand up and Clem stepped forward as if drawn in by some strange gravitational pull, closing the space between them as Gucci rubbed her thumb across Clem’s lower lip, and Clem closed her eyes, entranced, her world shrinking to the two of them and their single point of contact.

And then the clock chimed midnight and the contact was gone, and Clem let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, her knees weak like she’d just gotten out of her mech, and she opened her eyes to see Gucci wink at her and say, “Sorry, I have to go. Lots to do tomorrow, you know?” And then she was gone, in a swirl of red fabric, leaving Clem standing, swaying, alone in a dark greenhouse, one hand raised to her lips where she could swear she still felt the phantom of a touch, and it occurred to her that she hadn’t asked why Gucci was so far from the party herself.

**Author's Note:**

> no I tragically don't have specific images for outfit references, though the kind of fabric/color I'm imagining for Gucci's dress is inspired by Wen Qing in The Untamed, specifically what she wears in earlier episodes, like in the netflix thumbnail for ep 12, except More Extra bc this is Partizan we're talking about
> 
> title from Bubblegum Bitch by Marina bc honestly? Primadonna is a very Clem song but there were no lyrics that I could make fit as a title for this specific fic
> 
> partially inspired by a game of Breakup On Re-Entry by @LeviathanFiles on twitter that I played recently in which the characters were awful rich girls who didn't know that they were mech pilots on the opposite side of a war and realized about halfway through that we'd accidentally reinvented Clem/Gucci so. shout out to Riley for that
> 
> I'm on twitter @s_artemisios where I continue to very excited abt this season


End file.
